UPDATE: Go here to grab a widget or banner and go here to donate. Thank you!
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Two boxes arrive at my house every month full of child sponsorship packets to be laid out on tables at my concerts and speaking engagements. 200 kids waiting for sponsors. Every month.
Occasionally – rarely – I get an e-mail asking me to “pull” a child’s packet. The child has moved to a city where mom and dad have found work. The child is older and has chosen to work instead of going to school. A child has died. I don’t usually know the reason. Whatever the reason, the child is no longer up for sponsorship.
Last week I got a phone call from Tasha at Compassion headquarters asking me to pull the packet of a boy named Achile from Burkina Faso in Western Africa. He’s eight, she said, and he has a congenital heart defect that requires him to be transported to India to be operated on by specialists.
He doesn’t need just any sponsor, she said. He needs someone who’ll pray for him, write to encourage him, and understand if things go wrong.
A few days before that phone call, my son Gresham (age 7), got the bad news that his sponsored child in Ethiopia was leaving the Compassion program due to lack of interest from his parents.
“Can my son sponsor Achile?” I asked Tasha.
Tasha said that would great if we’d write and pray for him too.
We’ll do better than that, I said. “We’ll raise the money for his heart surgery on my blog.”
As I type, a page is being created at Compassion.com where more than $24,000 will be donated to cover Achile’s heart surgery. The details of his condition and widget you can spread around the interwebs on his behalf are coming soon.
In the meantime, pray. If all has gone according to plan, Achile is in India right now. No word yet on the exact day and time of his surgery but I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything at all.
What a coincidence that a boy in my garage – 1 of 200 that come and go every month – needed my son.
Not a coincidence at all.
Aww! How sweet…yet heart breaking.
But I guess that’s how poverty is.
I have goosebumps. Lots of goosebumps (godbumps?). Praising God for how He works, for your family being blessed by this little boy, and you blessing him. God is so good.
answered prayers man, answered prayers. love you brother!
Ain’t no sech animal as coincidence. I’m sorry your son’s child was pulled from the program, but maybe Achile needs him…and your family…worse. Bless his heart, God is certainly looking out for him!
Praying….my sponsor kid is 9 and lives in Burkina Faso.
No coincidence at all, me thinks…
Amazing. God’s timing, God’s providence, God’s provision. I know that Compassion’s ministry saves lives. It isn’t always this literal and obvious though! Thanks for sharing. I will be checking back, I want to help.
Things like this make it pretty hard to deny God’s absolute and supreme sovereignty.
Can I post your post on my blog? What would be the best way for me to point readers to you and Achile?
I love how God works.
I’ll be sharing this with my readers and be praying for this sweet boy.
Praying for him. I’m trying to imagine what it feels like to get a box of 200 kids in your garage every month that you are responsible for. Praying for you too!
Praying for him & his family. How amazing our God works.
What a cool story about how God works in every detail of our lives.
Praying for Achile and for Gresham as God works through their lives.
I can’t wait to see how quickly the money is raised!
Total “Truth Bumps” on this amazing story of how good our God is, Your son is an amazing young man. Way to go dad!
We will be praying for Achile here in Houston. I will keep checking for your widget and will post on my blog when it is up. I recently raised $8,000 on my blog for my friend’s daughter who needed brain surgery. It is amazing how people come together in times like this. Take care….Jill (Wolverton) Ward
My son’s sponsored child is seven and lives in Burkina Faso too!
We’ll be praying for Achile!
I just LOVE the way God puzzles things together in our lives… Looking forward to the widget. Even though I don’t have a high-traffic blog, I’ll post this story there and be praying for this sweet little boy.
I have added Achile’s donation button to my blog along with a link back to yours, so they can read your touching story.
Blessings!
Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White was born with this condition. Just comparing the situations a little further.
Finally got my widget and my post up and published. Doing whatever I can to encourage people to contribute may be, frankly, the only way I will be able to contribute to this, with our business on life support. I hope my little part pays off.
Well, yes…I can also pray.
[...] After traveling to the Dominican Republic with Shaun Groves in 2008, I can vouch for his heart for needy children. When he learned about a Compassion kid who needs heart surgery, he decided to raise money for his surgery. [...]
[...] Achile has the privilege of being in the Compassion program in Burkina Faso. More than than, when Compassion HQ contacted Shaun Groves that he needed to pull his child sponsorship info from the boxes that would be shared at concerts & conferences Shaun more than stepped up to the plate. Actually…his son did. [...]